InDesign Tutorial 08 of 20

How to make a newsletter

In the Pages Panel, click the New Page icon and create 4 pages in total.

Load swatches

To save time when making a new document for a regular client you can load the swatches from another InDesign Document.

Go to your Swatches Panel and click on the Swatches Panel Option Icon

Select Load Swatches.

Select an InDesign document that you would like to ‘steal’ the swatches from and click Open.

The swatches that were used in that document will now be added to your list of colours in the Swatches Panel.

Master pages

This is a page that is like a background to any pages you may add. It is a great place to put design elements that will appear on multiple pages, for example Guides, and importantly the only place to do automatic page numbering.

Double click the words A-Master in the top selection of the Pages Panel.

You will be taken into your A-Master page.Note: To know which page you are on (page 1, 2, 3 or 4) check in the bottom left of the page. At the moment it will show ‘A-Master’. This indicates you are on the A-Master page.

Draw a circle in the middle of your page and fill with a bright colour. Notice in your Pages Panel that all the pages will now have the circle on it.

Note: If you are using Spreads like these (see screen shots above), then the circle will only appear on alternating pages in your Pages Panel. This is so that you can have right and left Master pages. Copy and Paste the circle onto both pages if you want them to appear on both sides.

Automatic page numbers

The Master page is a good place for Automatic page numbering. It can appear on individual pages if you prefer.

Making sure you are on your master page (remember to check the bottom left of your page).

Choose your Type Tool and drag out a type box large enough for your page numbering.

An ‘A’ will appear. This is normal and indicates the current page number (see bottom left of your page).

If you now double click page 1 or 2 in your Pages Panel you will see the correct page number listed.

Video transcription

InDesign CC tutorial 08: Setting up a newsletter

My name is Pip Payne. I am a trainer here at Bring Your Own Laptop.

Open up InDesign. First go to ‘File’ then ‘New’ then ‘Document’ then have a look at the ‘options’. Notice down here I’ve ticked the preview button which allows me to see what’s going on before I hit the ‘ok’ button here. The intent, I will leave at print, facing pages is good. Primary text frame, we will talk about later. Number of pages, I will leave at 4 and because of where I am in the world, Im going to go with A4 size. Number of columns is 3, and down in margins, because I want it to be a bit fatter at the bottom for page numbers I unlink it which allows those to stay the same. Then in the bleed, I’ll give it 3mm, hit tab here because it’s linked which means all of them will be 3mm. Take a look, go ‘ok’.

Let’s look at pages. Page 1 is always a right hand page like a book. Pages 2 and 3 will be facing pages and if we go to the master they are also facing pages. The master looks very similar to pages 2 and 3. If you go to the master page, you will see that it is a master because this bit is highlighted as well as having a grey box here.

Let’s have a look, we have a primary text frame on here. You can only have one per master page.

To set up Page Numbering: I’m going to click and drag across the width of the columns and with character or paragraph levels selected, select a line centre. Now my cursor is in the middle of the page. Then go to ‘type’, ‘insert special page character’, ‘markers’, ‘current page number’, a little ‘a’ appears which is just a symbol and will actually be the page number on the page. I’m going to make it bigger and shuffle it down on the page. I’m then going to make a copy of it and move it across so it’s the same on the other page by holding down my ‘alt’ key. Pages 2 and 3 are the same and pages 1 and 4.

Anything I put on my master page will appear on every page. For example, If I make this little box here you will see that it appears on every left hand page. This is one of the functions of a master page.